


Three Words, Eight Letters (that he hasn't said)

by patiently_yours



Category: Great News (TV 2017)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-21
Updated: 2019-01-21
Packaged: 2019-10-14 04:15:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,034
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17501384
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/patiently_yours/pseuds/patiently_yours
Summary: Katie and Carol freak out because Greg hasn't said, "I love you," yet.





	Three Words, Eight Letters (that he hasn't said)

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first work for "Great News," which I've watched in its entirety over the past two weeks. Thank you, Netflix, for giving us this programme. And thank you to the brave few who have actually written for this fandom - I am writing purely because your works were so amazing that I sat and read them back-to-back and needed more. So. Please write more. You're all fab.

It was shaping up to be a lovely day. Her favourite contestant on America’s Got Talent had passed through to the semi-finals, the time change meant that it would still be daylight when she left the office after the show, and it was a surprisingly mild day outside, so she got to wear her favourite green top to work today. The only fly in her ointment was that her source had chosen not to break the story of the ring of mothers who had been shoplifting baby goods from Targets in their strollers on The Breakdown, but had chosen to go onto Chip and Chet’s show instead. The Breakdown was up in the ratings right now, but still, that choice stung. What did Chip and Chet have that Chuck and Portia didn’t?

Well.

Still, it was shaping up to be a beautiful -

“What’s wrong, Pumpkin?”

“Mom!” Katie exclaimed, shaking her head. She hadn’t even heard her mother come in, but with as many cheap Chico’s gold and silver chains as her mother was wearing, it was a miracle the metal detectors downstairs hadn’t gone off loudly enough to alert the whole building.

“Nothing’s wrong,” said Katie with a sigh. “It’s just that -”

“Greg hasn’t said that he loves you yet,” Carol finished, sitting down on Katie’s couch and placing her purse in her lap.

“How do you know that?” asked Katie. “Have you got my apartment bugged again? Because I swear, my next door neighbours got a new pig that squeals like that - I haven’t been that gassy lately.”

“No, I haven’t bugged your apartment,” replied Carol patiently.

“Then the only way you could know is - wait. Have you been reading my virtual diary? But how could you? I take my phone with me everywhere!”

“Do you?” asked Carol sagely. “Even into the -”

“The toilet! But I can’t after my old phone made the suicide leap straight into the bowl during the midterm elections…and before you ask, yes, it fell in after. But my virtual diary is password protected. How did you get in?”

“Please. You used the same password that you used for your AOL instant messaging account in 2003. It’s like you wanted me to read it.”

“I didn’t want you to read it! That’s why I put it on my phone with a password!” Katie exclaimed. But it was no use being outraged over methods; her mother wasn’t going to leave until they got to the point.

“Then how else was I supposed to know how everything is going with my future grand-babies? Ever since you and Greg got together, you don’t tell me anything!”

“Mom, I told you exactly what I wore when Greg took me out to Red Lobster last night, down to the underwear. I told you what I ordered. I told you what he ordered. I even sent you a picture of him wearing that ridiculous bib that you called and insisted that he wore as he ate his crab, which you promptly posted in your WhatsApp group, causing Angie to message him a congratulations on his beard growth. How can you say that I don’t tell you anything?”

“Because you didn’t tell me this! And I’m sorry, Katie, but a mother likes to know when her baby is upset about something as monumental as the man that she loves not saying it in return.”

Carol had edged closer to Katie’s desk with every sentence, and Katie stood up, too, anticipating it as her mother flung herself into Katie’s arms.

“It’s okay, Mom, it’s not quite that bad. I haven’t told him that I love him yet.”

“At least you’ve maintained some dignity,” Carol decided, leaning back and fixing Katie’s hair. “But still, Greg can be a little bit of a pussy. Must be his British side. You may have to man up for the both of you this time.”

“Greg is not a-”

“Carol, do you mind coming into the production planning meeting today? Katie Couric is receiving a Nobel Peace Prize for her documentary on child slavery in south Sudan, and Chuck is sure to have a fit. I shudder to think what will happen if he remembers that he was taken off of his trip because of me” said Greg as he stuck his head into Katie’s office.

“Of course, I’ll be right there,” replied Carol, winking at Katie over her shoulder as she left the office in Greg’s wake.

———————————————————————————————

“Earth to Katie,” said Greg, tweaking the end of her braid and snapping her back into reality. “Can’t decide between coconut and almond milk again?”

Katie blinked, focussing on the cooler section in Duane Reed. They’d run out of toilet paper and alternative milk, again, and Greg always remembered to stop at the shop before they’d climbed the sixteen flights of stairs to her apartment. 

“Yeah, I just don’t know. The flavour of the coconut is nice, but the consistency when you put it into coffee is just terrible. But then, any milk substitute in coffee is terrible.”

“So get one of those coffee machines that your mum has,” said Greg easily, placing the grocery basket on the ground as he waited for her to make up her mind. 

“You’d hate me for it,” Katie retorted. “You don’t want me to be anything like my mother.”

“That isn’t true!” Greg protested. “There are many things about your mother that I love. And despite her constant presence in our relationship, I have come to appreciate her even more these past few months.”

“You wouldn’t say that if you’d heard her this morning,” Katie muttered under her breath, reaching for the almond milk and putting it into Greg’s basket. 

“What was that?” asked Greg as he put the coconut milk into the basket as well.

“Nothing,” Katie said quickly, smiling and squaring her shoulders. “Ready to climb up all those stairs with all this milk?”

“Katie,” Greg repeated, his voice hitting the “t” sound and making her gut twist. She loved how he said her name. How he waited for her to make up her mind about the most mundane things, how he stayed at her dodgy little walk up with her instead of making her go all the way Uptown to his, how he appreciated her mother, he he unbraided her hair and rubbed her scalp after a long day. How, how, how - but the fluorescent lights were too bright for so much honesty, and she’d just seen her next door neighbour buy a ten-pack of condoms, which would make for an interesting night. But then again -

“How is it so easy for you to say that you love my mother?”

Greg froze in surprise. 

“What do you mean? I know she’s been texting you a lot tonight, but she’s just excited to be in Portia’s Insta-story. You love her too. You’ll remember that when the story’s expired and she goes back to her Facebook stalking again.”

“No, that’s not what I mean. How is it that it’s so easy for you to say that you love her when you can’t even say that about me?”

Greg’s eyebrows raised and furrowed in surprising rapidity. 

“What do you mean? I tell you every night!”

Katie reared back and accidentally kicked the grocery basket in surprise, sending the toilet paper flying. 

“What? I swear, Greg-”

“Katie, calm down,” said Greg, grabbing her arms and rubbing them gently. Katie noticed the other patrons of Duane Reed staring at them, and she tensed her arms and lowered her voice to a whisper.

“I am calm. But you, Greg Walsh, are a liar. When have you told me that you love me? And saying, ‘You’re not too bad,’ may count in England, but by God, you’re in America now. You’ll have to do better than that.”

Greg looked genuinely baffled, and when he dropped Katie’s arms, she realised that he also seemed a bit hurt. Actually, now that she thought about it, the fact that he was engaging in such a serious emotional discussion in a public place meant that he probably was.

“Every night, right before you fall asleep, when you roll over onto your side and pull my arm around you, I tell you that I love you.”

“When I roll - Greg, you know my allergy medicine knocks me out. I fall asleep as soon as my face hits the pillow. That’s why we can’t watch Whose Line is it Anyway in the bed anymore - you always get angry when I can’t finish the jokes the next day.”

“I’m telling you, every night you roll over, and I say, ‘I love you Katie Wendelson,’ and you say, ‘I love your arm - sorry if it falls asleep.’”

“Oh my God. So we’ve been saying this-”

“For probably a month now.”

“And I’ve been telling you that I love you, too.”

“Not in so many words.”

It was Katie’s turn to grab Greg’s arms.

“Oh God, Greg. I’m sorry.”

“No, it’s all right, I understand. I’m not normally an emotionally demonstrative man.”

“But you’ve been telling me every night for a month that you love me, and I haven’t said it back.”

“Well, not every night. I don’t exactly shout it across town when I’m at mine. And there was the weekend you stayed at your parents’ house before your mother’s colonoscopy. I thought about calling then, but I know how Carol can be when she’s in pain.”

“You should have called. It’d had made her day. She’s been so worried about this-”

“Your mother knows?” Greg exploded as quietly as he usually did. “But of course she does.”

“She read my virtual diary. Somehow she knows the password.”

“Oh yeah, ‘istilllovelancebass’ all lowercase. It’s your password to at least half of your accounts.”

“Greg!” Katie exclaimed, pouting. “Now my neighbours know the wifi password, and they’re going to use all the bandwidth again!”

The next door neighbour winked at her from the checkout queue, and Katie sighed. 

“Fine. We’ll just have to watch what I’ve already downloaded on Netflix. I hope you like hours and hours of Gilmore Girls.”

“As long as it’s not the season where Rory goes crazy and lives in her grandparents’ pool house. I have a secret horror of our own daughter doing that and Carol managing to adopt her.”

“Our daughter?” asked Katie, beaming.

“Well, I figure you two will be at least as close as Lorelai and Rory, though hopefully without the same name thing. I think one Katherine at a time is enough for my life. I’ve learnt that lesson already.”

“Our daughter,” repeated Katie, smiling at Greg. “Greg Walsh, I love you.”

“See? It wasn’t that hard to say,” smirked Greg, pulling Katie closer and kissing her in the dairy aisle of Duane Reed.

“I knew that he wasn’t a pussy!” crowed Carol from Katie’s phone.

“Mom!” exclaimed Katie, jerking away from Greg to find her mother’s face beaming at her from the phone in her hand. “How did you do that?”

“You boob dialled me like five minutes ago when you put your phone in your bra so that you could choose your milk. I must say, I don’t think that bra is doing you any favours. When was the last time you were sized properly?”

“I think her bra fits just fine, Carol,” said Greg patiently, taking Katie’s phone from her and smiling at Carol. “And we’re going to go before all of Duane Reed adds us to their Insta stories. But Katie will call you later with all of the details - if she can stay awake that long.”

With that, Greg disconnected the call and turned Katie’s phone off. 

“I don’t think we’ll be needing that for a while,” he said, picking up the basket and moving to the checkout. 

“No time for that, either,” Katie replied, peeling his fingers off of the basket and pulling him from the store. “But I will tell you one thing. I’m going to change my account passwords.”

“To what?” asked Greg, amused.

“I think, ‘ilovegregwalsh’ is more appropriate, don’t you?”

“And here I was, thinking of, ‘howiadorekatiesboobs.’”

Katie smirked at Greg. 

“I think that’s, ‘They’re not too bad,’ to you.”


End file.
